In order to obtain fruitful discussion for Christians:
How have you known when God has communicated something to you, when you have heard the Counselor?
Not so much looking for rules, but looking for experienced examples of the convincing indicators you have experienced.
I was born again at 7 years old. Without a doubt I KNEW God wanted me to run to the altar and give my life to him. No words, I just knew.
I think I lived a typical Christian life until I was perhaps 35 before I heard His voice. I learned a valuable lesson. I was bugged about those verses in Mark 16: the signs of the believer. So I started bugging God about them. I don't think I missed a day for 6 months, asking God about why I did not see these signs in my life. Looking back, it MUST have been the Holy Spirit helping me, because I am not that consistent!
Anyway, one day I took a prayer walk, as was my custom, and started to bug God again: "GOD..." That is as far as I got. God spoke. I heard His voice and His words. He explained why I did not see those signs. Yes, I was a believer, as in "Missing hell and making it into heaven," but I did not believe those signs would follow me!
I learned a valuable lesson: if one is consistent in asking God, He will always answer. I believe that was God the Father speaking that time. I have also heard Jesus speak to me many times, and I am sure I have heard the Holy Spirit. God the father's voice was so full of authority! I was "in the spirit" the moment He spoke. Jesus' voice has authority also, but it is different. The Holy Spirit's voice is gentle.
One must be VERY careful here: one could be like Joseph Smith and DEMAND God speak. You would certainly hear something, but it would not be God! One could desire greatly to hear a voice, and again, one could hear. There are so many voices in the world. Many times, people hear their OWN SPIRIT and don't recognize it is their own spirit speaking. We need to learn to recognize our own spirit. It would be like "a still, small voice" like God speaks sometimes, but it is our own spirit speaking.
How to tell? For those who have followed God's instructions in Acts 1 and received the mighty baptism in the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of praying in tongues, hearing from God is easier. You see, when anyone prays in tongues, or prays "in the spirit" as Paul wrote, there is a place, a connection, where our spirit speaks. God the Holy Spirit creates the tongues, passes them to our human spirit, and our human spirit speaks the tongues out. In reality, it is God the Holy Spirit creating prayers for us to pray out.
My point is, when someone prays in tongues frequently, as God has instructed we do, one can learn to listen in that same location where one hears the tongues. It is the connection (I cannot think of a better word) between our spirit man and our soul. And that is the place where God always speaks from. He always speaks to our spirit person, for God is a Spirit. Praying in the Spirit is really the human spirit speaking. When one receives this baptism in the Holy spirit, God creates a connection between our spirit man and our mouth, BYPASSING our brain! When one is praying in tongues, they have no idea what they are going to say until it is said.
When someone prophecies, it is the same way, only it is in the learned language: but again, it bypasses the speech center of the brain so the one prophesying has no idea what he or she is saying until the words are said.
For those that DO pray in the spirit, pray hard for a few minutes, and stop suddenly: you will hear the tongues continue in your mind. Locate that location or connection! That is where you will hear God's voice. Demonic spirits CANNOT speak from inside your human spirit. ONLY the human spirit or God can speak from that location. All the "voices" a believe might hear from other sources come from outside. This is the best way to know the source of voices.
For those that cannot pray in tongues, why have you disobeyed God's command in Acts 1?